1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a front loader mounted in front of a travelling vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
One known example of such a front loader mounted in front of a travelling vehicle is a front loader described in JP 2006-028934 A (or U.S. Pat. No. 7,413,397 B2 corresponding thereto).
The front loader comprises:
a main frame standing erect in front of the travelling vehicle;
a boom having a rear end thereof pivotably supported at an upper portion of the main frame to be vertically movable; and
a work implement pivotably supported at a front end of the boom to effect scooping and dumping operations.
The front loader further comprises an indicator device for indicating that the work implement is in a horizontal posture (e.g. a posture where the bottom surface of the work implement is horizontal) while the work implement is contacted on the ground.
The indicator device has an indicator rod operable in association with the scoop and dumping operation of the work implement; and a guiding device for guiding an intermediate portion of the indicator rod to be movable in an axial direction thereof.
The indicator rod is arranged along a forward portion of the boom on a upper-forward side of the boom; and a front end thereof is pivotably supported by a pivot shaft for pivotably supporting a front end of a work implement cylinder for driving the work implement. In operation, the indicator rod is moved rearward in the axial direction by the scooping operation of the work implement, and is moved forward in the axial direction by the dumping operation of the work implement.
The guiding device is provided at a longitudinal intermediate portion of the boom, and has an insertion portion for receiving the indicator rod so that the indicator rod is movable in the axial direction.
An index portion is provided at the intermediate portion of the indicator. In operation, while the work implement is moved upward away from the ground, the work implement is pivoted to align the index portion of the indicator rod to the insertion portion of the guiding device; and in this state, bringing the work implement into contact with the ground causes the work implement to come into contact with the ground in a horizontal posture.
The indicator device of the conventional front loader indicates that the work implement is in a horizontal posture only when the work implement is in contact with the ground, and does not indicate that the work implement is in the same posture at any height position.
As such, when an operator has to manipulate the work implement while checking the posture of the work implement with his/her own eye in order to place the work implement in the same posture at any height position while operating the boom upward or downward. Therefore, it is difficult to perform a work in which an angle of the work implement is important, such as a work for vertically moving the boom while keeping the posture of the work implement at the same posture (e.g. a horizontal posture), such as a pallet fork work.
Further, the operator recognizes that the work implement is in a horizontal posture while contacted on the ground by visually checking that the index portion of the indicator rod is aligned with the insertion portion of the guiding device. However, with the aforementioned indicator device, since the indicator rod is disposed along the forward portion of the boom at the upper forward portion of the boom and the guiding device for receiving and guiding the indicator rod is provided at the longitudinal intermediate portion of the boom, the visually checking position by the operator is distant from the operator and is difficult to visually observe.
In view of these inconveniences, an object of the present invention is to provide a front loader provided with an indicator device whereby the foregoing problems are solved.